Wales see off Switzerland

Goals from Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale saw Wales continue their recent resurgence with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Switzerland at the Liberty Stadium.

Switzerland were reduced to 10 men after 54 minutes when full-back Reto Ziegler was shown a straight red for having his studs raised in a tackle on Chris Gunter, and a foul on the same player by Timm Klose six minutes later allowed Ramsey to slot his fifth international goal from the penalty spot.

Bale then made the win safe as he raced onto a Steve Morison pass to beat Diego Bengalio for his first Wales goal since the sides met in Basle a year ago.

Klose gave away a needless early corner and it almost proved costly, but Darcy Blake wasted a free header after being picked out by Craig Bellamy.

Bellamy was off-target with two efforts from the edge of the box before a poor first touch meant Ramsey failed to pick out the Liverpool man in acres of space in the Swiss box.

Wales' best chance yet arrived after 37 minutes as Bale's ball into the box picked out Morison, who expertly beat Klose but saw his shot diverted over the crossbar by Benaglio. Switzerland responded with their best effort as skipper Gokhan Inler's low drive flashed just wide of the post with an unsighted Wayne Hennessey stranded.

The Swiss thought they had grabbed the opener just five minutes after the restart as Shaqiri's free-kick was bundled in by Eren Derdiyok, but the Bayer Leverkusen forward was ruled to have been offside.

Dutch official Bjorn Kuipers was the centre of attention in the 54th minute as he showed Ziegler a straight red card after the left-back had gone into a challenge on Chris Gunter with his stud's showing.

Wales soon had another penalty shout turned away from the resulting free-kick as Blake appeared to be bundled over as he battled to reach Bale's inswinging delivery but it proved to be third time lucky on the hour mark as Klose's clumsy challenge on Gunter saw Kuipers point to the spot and Ramsey's low effort could not be kept out by Benaglio.

And victory was sealed in the 71st minute as Morison passed between two flat-footed defenders to find Bale in space. The winger raced in on goal and made no mistake as he shot left-footed past Benaglio.

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